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This post is long overdue. I should have written this last Sunday but because 1) I was too busy with work, 2) the electricity was often out, 3) the internet went out starting at dusk, and 4) when the power and the internet came back, I was busy again with work.

On being jinxed…

Bobby and I have this long-standing joke – or call it observation – that every time I have a deadline for my online job, something comes up unexpectedly to hinder my progress and to make my submissions late. Call it findng a scapegoat but I prefer to think that I’m jinxed.

With my first freelance job

Back when I was still with my former freelance boss, I was using a very unreliable internet connection – we’ll call it SB prepaid, it is actually a Smart product which was supposed to give me fast internet because of it being the largest mobile phone provider in the country. Sad to say that my expections were all proven too high because everytime I have a project, the connection goes down. I couldn’t even check my mails! And to think that I am using Gmail 😦

The power failures would also creep into the last hour – as in when I am still writing my last article. Because my deadlines had been daily, at 8 PM, it came to a point where I was constantly late in sending out projects.

To add to the dramatic effect, my illness – mitral valve prolapse – would decide to make itself known by making me palpitate 😦 maybe it was just the stress of it all but, in the end, I had to quit that job because of a particular incident where I couldn’t meet the deadlines because I was constantly lying down – it was around the time when Bobby’s grandmother passed away.

With my current freelance job

I still blame the power failures that the electric company brings every week. I have too many rants about the brownouts – mostly happening when I have a deadline! 😦

My internet connection is much more reliable these days. I’m hooked up with SkyLineAccess with a grid antenna. While it was new to us, though, the crazy brownouts would come – causing the antenna’s microchip to breakdown, leaving me with no internet access for days. The Engineer was confused as to why, for the very first time in their long business career, an antenna keeps breaking down. The last time the antenna went on a major breakdown, it died. Well, I had to shell out some Php7,000 just to have a new microchip installed. 😦

Over the course of time, I have developed new illnesses. According to a good friend, Dieter, when the creator was calling for people who were interested in diseases, I must have been calling out me! me! 😀 This time, I had to return some projects because I was hospitalized or had to go to the hospital for an emergency case 😦

The last major event happened last weekend with the storm, Jolina. I call it really personal – I mean, what’s with Joy, Jolina, and jinxed? 😀 Anyway, we had a major rush project but the weather and the electric company decided to play with us (Lurchie, Maree, and, perhaps, my other colleagues). The power would turn off for several minutes or hours, turn on for some time, then off again, then on again, and off again, until it was too difficult to keep track of how many times the ons-offs happened. It was going really crazy to the point that I just sat near the PC, turned it on when the power went back and worked as fast as I could. When the power goes off, I chat with Maree and Lurchie but sometimes had to just text. When the power comes back, we work back…on and on the cycle went until it became too infuriating that we were grumbling with some *#*#*##* signs and crazy, frustrating messages. My internet connection actually held on through the entire 2 days of crazy brown-outs that Lurchie said were early Christmas lights. 🙂 However, during the last power off, it died, too – leaving me with a project to pass but no internet connection. Bobby and I had to go to Scooby’s to send the articles – which I had a hard time transfering to the flash drive because the PC acted crazy and wouldn’t recognize the USB (sigh). I had to burn the files in a blank CD – glad I found one.

So, there it is – everything that makes me conclude that I might really be jinxed. Still, Maree said that I have to think positive. Alright, I will try to…but for the meantime, let me blame the electric company, the weather, and my being jinxed 😀